1. Beowulf and the Monomyth (The Hero's Journey) The Monomyth
World Literature
Mr. Brennan

2. Do-Now
“The” Story
“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” Willa Cather Do you agree or disagree with this quote? If you agree, what are the typical structures of these repeated stories? Can you reference examples to support your claim?

3. AGENDA Unit Overview: Beowulf and the Monomyth
Learning
Objective
SWBAT explain Campbell’s theory of the Monomyth, and how it represents a symbolic search for individual identity and a culture’s concept of the idealized member of society.
Unit Overview: Beowulf and the Monomyth
Mini-Lecture: Campbell and the Monomyth
Video: Power of Myth: The Hero’s Adventure
Mini-Lecture: History of England and English
Identify a hero/heroine from literature, film, or television and explain how he/she adheres to Campbell's monomyth.
Homework
Reminders

4. Unit’s Essential Questions
What is an epic? How does the epic serve as a narrative form of a national identity?
What is a hero? How does Beowulf follow Campbell’s theory of the Monomyth, or Hero’s Journey? What are the implications?
How does the hero serve as model of the ideal citizen?
What are the conventions of an epic? What are the literary devices of Anglo-Saxon literature?
How has the polytheistic pagan story of Beowulf been influenced by monotheistic Christianity?
How do modern theories on myth apply to the epic, Beowulf?
What are the origins of the English language? How has it come to dominate the global landscape?
Do you see:
Frazerian anxiety over natural forces, and a primitive effort to understand and manipulate them?
What does this epic say about the formation of civilization and its tensions with the “wild”?
Freudian unconscious psyche at work, in the play of Oedipal tensions?
Where are Durkheim’s social values?
Where are Jung’s archetypes at work?
How might the story be an expression of this culture’s “ultimate concern,” as in Tillich?
What is the gender dynamics of maleness and femaleness?
The earliest “book” known, watch for subtext of universal world views, of patriarchy v. matriarchy, of order fighting chaos, of agrarian civilization overtaking hunter-gatherer tribes.

5. Unit Overview Columbus Day “The Hero’s Adventure” No Class? Monomyth
TUE
WED
THUR
FRI
Columbus Day
“The Hero’s Adventure”
No Class?
Monomyth
History of England and English
Anglo-Saxon Literature
Beowulf  
P. 3—15
P. 15—35
P. 35—57
P. 57—89
P. 89—113
P. 113—151
P. 151—169
P. 169—191
P. 191—213
Beowulf
Essay
Exam
Term 1 Ends

6. Final Unit Assessment
In a 1250 word essay, examine the hero in Beowulf, as well as a person you believe to be a hero in contemporary American culture, and evaluate how they parallel with Campbell’s Monomyth?

7. Archetypes
ARCHETYPES are recurrent symbols or motifs in literature, art, or mythology; in Jungian psychology, they are primitive mental images inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.
Archetypes create myths, religions, and ideas that influence and set their stamp on whole nations and epochs. An image can be considered archetypal when it can be shown to exist
in the records of human history, in identical form and with
the same meaning; thus revealing deposits of the
constantly repeated experiences of humanity.

8. Joseph Campbell
Campbell (1904—1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion.
Campbell introduced the monomyth (one myth), referring to the theory that sees all mythic narratives, regardless of their origin or time, as variations of a single great story. This archetypical pattern, often described as the hero's journey, was described in Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).

9. “We have only to follow the thread of the hero path,
and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence.
And where we had thought to be alone,
we will be with all the world.”
–Joseph Campbell

10. “A Hero’s Adventure” What makes a hero?
What are the two types of heroic deeds? What heroic cycle is followed in completing both deeds?
Psychologically, what is the purpose of the hero’s adventure?
What are Moyers’ and Campbell’s thoughts on the difference between a leader and a hero? What do they say about its application to individuals such as Napoleon (or perhaps Hitler)? What does this tell you about the perception of a hero?
Campbell distinguishes two types of heroes—one who chooses to undertake the journey and another who is thrown involuntarily into an adventure. According to Campbell, in regards to the hero, how are these two types of adventures the same?
What distinction is made between a celebrity and a hero? Why does a society or nation need heroes?
We are each completing our own personal heroic journey, and each of us must vanquish our own dragon. According to Campbell, what does the dragon psychologically represent? What is his solution to slaying this dragon within you?
Over the course of our lives, and our personal heroic adventure, we encounter suffering. Who is responsible for our suffering according to Freud? According to Marx? According to Campbell? What is Campbell’s advice to addressing suffering?
What are Campbell’s thoughts on the truthfulness of myth?

11. The Hero with a Thousand Faces
The mythological hero, setting forth from his common day hut or castle, is lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure. There he encounters a shadow presence that guards the passage. The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark, or be slain by the opponent and descend in death. Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him, some of which give magical aid. When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be represented as the hero's sexual union with the goddess-mother of the world, his recognition by the father-creator, his own divinization, or again—if the powers have remained unfriendly to him—his theft of the boon he came to gain; intrinsically it is an expansion of consciousness and therewith of being. The final work is that of the return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under their protection; if not, he flees and is pursued. At the return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread. The boon that he brings restores the world.

12. Monomyth: The Hero’s Journey [see website for video]
0: :54 (afterward, references to the hunger games)

13. Monomyth: The Hero’s Journey
Through the journey, the hero learns the truth about his world and himself.
The journey symbolizes the search for individual identity and the culture’s concept of the idealized member of society.

14. Ordinary World & Call to Adventure
Departure
Ordinary World & Call to Adventure
The hero's journey begins when the hero becomes aware of the world outside his home or town where he/she has lived for his entire life. His journey is usually given to him by a herald who helps the hero by acting as a guide.
Limited/Increased Awareness of Problem

15. Departure
Refusal of the Call
Often when the call is given, the future hero first refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.
Fear/Resistance to Change

16. Meeting the Mentor & Supernatural Aids
Departure
Meeting the Mentor & Supernatural Aids
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known. More often than not, this supernatural mentor will present the hero with one or more talismans or artifacts that will aid them later in their quest.
Overcoming Fears

17. The Crossing of the First Threshold
Departure
The Crossing of the First Threshold
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.
Committed to Change
Imperative for Cultural Dissociation

18. Departure
Belly of The Whale
The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. By entering this stage, the person shows willingness to undergo a metamorphosis.

19. Initiation
Road of Trials (Tests)
The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.
Experiencing New Conditions

20. Meeting With the Goddess (Allies)
Initiation
Meeting With the Goddess (Allies)
This is the point when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely.
Experiencing New Conditions

21. Woman as Temptress (Enemies)
Initiation
Woman as Temptress (Enemies)
In this step, the hero faces those temptations, often of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead him or her to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero- knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.
Experiencing New Conditions

22. Innermost Cave / The Approach Atonement with the Father
Initiation
Innermost Cave / The Approach Atonement with the Father
In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. (The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the special world)
Preparing for Major Change

23. The Supreme Ordeal Apotheosis
Initiation
The Supreme Ordeal Apotheosis
When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return. (Out of the moment of confronting death/fear comes a new life)
Big Change with Feelings of Life and Death

24. The Ultimate Boon (Reward)
Initiation
The Ultimate Boon (Reward)
The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.
Accepting Consequences of New Life

25. Return
Refusal of the Return
Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.

26. Return
The Magic Flight
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.

27. Return
Rescue from Without
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, oftentimes he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience.
New Challenge and Redirection

28. Resurrection Crossing of the Return Threshold
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world.
Last Attempts, Final Dangers; Growth at Redirection

29. Return with the Elixir Master of Two Worlds
This step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Gautama Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.
Mastery

30. Return
Freedom to Live
Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.
Mastery

31. Monomyth: The Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey simply highlights repetitive archetypes throughout heroic tales, it is NOT a rigid formula
Many variations exist – the stages can be deleted, added to, and drastically re- shuffled without losing their power.
The essential characters can be combined or divided into several figures to show different aspects of the same idea. The myth is infinitely flexible, capable of endless variation

32. The Power of Myth The Hero's Adventure
[see website for video]
0:00-- 1:50 (intro)  1:50
4: :21 (to Ranks reference)  4:00
(cathedral > capital > office) – 55:44 [end]  4:00 m TTL (10m)

33. Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss
without such trials as came to those who passed before you?
Qur'an
WE ARE ALL HEROES it's about the trial; it’s about a transformation of consciousness
The hero is always ready when the adventure approaches: the adventure that he is ready for is the one that he gets
Life’s big question: When you cross the the threshold, and confront the beast/the dragon/leviathan—will you be devoured by it, or will you be able to conquer it or use it?
Hero’s do not change the system, but learn to live and advance within it. Not to worry, you will have aids to assist you, but the last trick must be done by you. You save the world by saving yourself.

34. Question to Consider
Do we create stories based on this paradigm through our collective unconscious or has the appropriation of Campbell’s model influenced the recreation of the monomyth?

35. Identify a hero/heroine from literature, film, or television and
Homework
Identify a hero/heroine from
literature, film, or television and
explain how he/she adheres to
Campbell's monomyth.
(departure > initiation > return)
Identify a hero/heroine from literature, film, or television and explain how he/she adheres to Campbell's monomyth.